Interpreting Django Traceback - django

Question

I'm getting the following message. I somewhat understand that my project server cannot find the templates. However, I have no idea exactly what it's complaining about the templates. Would be great to hear alternate explanations of what's happening.
Environment:
Request Method: GET
Request URL: http://127.0.0.1:8000/polls/1/
Django Version: 1.4
Python Version: 2.7.3
Installed Applications:
('django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.sites',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
'polls',
'django.contrib.admin')
Installed Middleware:
('django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware')
Template Loader Error:
Django tried loading these templates, in this order:
Using loader django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader:
/home/stanley/mytemplates/polls/detail.html, polls/poll_detail.html (File does not exist)
Using loader django.template.loaders.app_directories.Loader:
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/auth/templates/polls/detail.html, polls/poll_detail.html (File does not exist)
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/admin/templates/polls/detail.html, polls/poll_detail.html (File does not exist)
Traceback:
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py" in get_response
136. response = response.render()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/template/response.py" in render
104. self._set_content(self.rendered_content)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/template/response.py" in rendered_content
79. template = self.resolve_template(self.template_name)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/template/response.py" in resolve_template
55. return loader.select_template(template)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/template/loader.py" in select_template
193. raise TemplateDoesNotExist(', '.join(not_found))
Exception Type: TemplateDoesNotExist at /polls/1/
Exception Value: polls/detail.html, polls/poll_detail.html

Answer 1

I'll try to answer this in a bit more depth, especially to react to your statement "I think i got the templates in the wrong place." This can be easily solved using the traceback you posted.
First thing it tells you is some stuff about your environment - you can simply ignore this. This is not usefull for a TemplateLoaderError. It can be important though if any of your apps requires a special version of Python or something the like.
Next thing to spot is what kind of error has ocurred, and this one is extremely helpfull for your special case:
Template Loader Error:
Django tried loading these templates, in this order:
Using loader django.template.loaders.filesystem.Loader:
/home/stanley/mytemplates/polls/detail.html, polls/poll_detail.html (File does not exist)
If you take a closer look at this one, it tells you exactly where Django tried to find the specified templates, and what happened while it was looking for them (File does not exist). This will help you to find a solution to check if you really got your templates in the wrong place (which will happen quite often, even to a bit more experienced Django developers).
The next part is the traceback. You can savely ignore it in your case, because there is no file involved that is located in your project folder. If it was, that would mean you possibly screwed up something in the named file, and Django even tells you in which line your code did (possibly) provoke the exception.
Last part is information about the exception that has been raised, in your case TemplateDoesNotExist. Django has some special exceptions that you can find here . Other than these Django raises the standard Python exceptions.
Hope i didn't tell you too much you allready knew.

Answer 2

Do you have something like this in your settings?
PROJECT_ROOT = path.dirname(path.abspath(__file__)) #gets directory settings is in
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
PROJECT_ROOT+'/templates',
)

Answer 3

You might have specified some path in your TEMPLATE_DIRS tuple in settings.py file.Django searches the html templates only in those directories.So add the following path to your TEMPLATE_DIRS.
TEMPLATE_DIRS = ('/polls',)